I feel the need to start a thread with this rather weird topic. On a normal work day, I do some computer work, check up on certain products and other boring buisness stuff.
But one thing I hate doing, that I have to do sometimes is talking to people by the phone. When I have to talk buisness related issues by phone, I have to concentrate extra hard, and sometimes (more than I would like) I get nervous and I say the wrong things. I´ve improved on this somewhat, but I still hate it and I still struggle with this relatively easy, mundane thing to do.
Most people I talk to look at me in weird way when I say that phone talking is hard for me to do.
So, Dopers, what “thing” or action do you struggle with, that most other people do with ease?
Freaking keys man . . . surriously . . . It takes me forever to figure out which direction to turn and how many times. And I’m easily confused, even with keys I use often, like my main house key.
Balance. I fall/stumble quite a bit.
That being said, I tend to be a little better than some people in endurance activities, like running or biking.
I also have issues talking with people on the phone. If I absolutely have to call up a stranger to ask for information or what have you, I have to rehearse what I want to say ahead of time. Thank ghod for email.
I also have great difficulty wrapping presents. It’s a vicious spiral: the harder it gets, the more I hate it; and the more I hate it, the harder it gets…
Talking on the phone for me, as well. Even something as simple as ordering a pizza used to be a sweat soaked phobic nightmare. It was part and parcel of my (diagnosed) anxiety disorder, and the remnant of it that’s remained despite mostly being in remission. I’ve gotten to the point where ordering food usually isn’t a problem (although restaurants with online ordering get my business 98% of the time), but calling customer service or a business type call or making a doctor’s appointment for my kid? Excruciating, no joke.
The other thing is making instant pudding. Whether I shake or stir or use a hand mixer, I still end up with leathery bits in my instant pudding. I can make a pudding from scratch with no problem, though!
Walking down stairs. A very hard time. If I’m at the top of an escalator when the electricity goes off, I’ll be stuck because I cannot walk down an escalator.
handwriting
the phone
accepting gifts
being acknowledged for giving gifts
respecting childish (in the sense of prone to temper tantrums) adults
not directly addressing untalked-about interpersonal issues (“and he does that because he has to win something in that situation”)
reading just to read
accepting flaws in things I do deliberately and carefully
Another phone hater here. I’m find face-to-face, but for some reason bring on the phone with someone I don’t know is Hell most of the time. Which really sucks because I have a phone interview for a job later today, and another one tomorrow. :eek:
Sometimes I have a hard time pronouncing certain words, like ‘thorough’, entrepreneur, anything with -th, (like thousandth, Worcestershire, and so on.
My mom is left-handed, and she still finds it difficult to quickly tell left from right; she has to think about it for a moment. My daughter is left-handed and did the same thing for years, until just recently (she is 19). I always told her that isn’t a big deal, because that’s just what southpaws are like sometimes.
I would have been a lefty, but my kindergarten teacher kept putting the pencil in my right hand. And the scissors. Heck, there weren’t even any left-handed scissors easily available when I was in kindergarten.
I also had the phone phobia, but this job forced me to overcome it. When I answer the phone here, the first word out of my mouth is “Diagnostic”. In the beginning, I concentrated on the first syllable of that word, and imagined I was telling every caller what I wished they would do, rather than call me. Corny, but it did help me remember my scripted greeting, and once the call had begun, I’d get through it.
What do I not do as well? Stand up for myself. I will not be confronting anyone, thank you. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a weenie.
Acting interested in what others are saying to me. Really. I’m terrible at not showing just how soul-scraping it is to listen to you talk about your weekend. If you’re not prepared to listen to ME pontificate at length on MY favorite subjects, get lost. But it’s not all bad news. I am shallow enough to put up with you if you’re hot. But only to a point.
Making change over $1.00. By that I mean I can make change up to a dollar, but if it’s $1.12 or $4.38, I’m lost. I know, I know–I still have to really think about it.
doing percentages in my head. Essentially, I have to 10% and then either half that or double it etc. Trying to find 30% off in my head doesn’t work.
Adding 3 digit numbers in my head or subtracting them, if it involves carrying. Same with division or multiplication.
Anyone see a trend here? I do.
reading musical notes on a page and translating them into notes played on any instrument. I can tell you that’s a C or whatever, but my brain doesn’t communicate that to my fingers well.
People who thrive on busy amaze me. “Well, we’ll run downtown and pick up that X you wanted and I want to look at shoes, then get a spot of lunch at this new place and I want to take you over to that new art gallery–it’s not too far from lunch, only about a 40 minute drive, then we have to meet the rest of the gang at the museum for that one exhibit that is just so good and then we have time for drinks at that great new bar that opened up, just 30 minutes away from where we’re going to dinner! After dinner, we’ll all relax by taking in that new show that got good reviews.”
This is some people’s one weekend day. Any ONE of those activities would be enough for me for a whole week. I am one boring person…
I’ve always had a very difficult time picking up on nonverbal cues. Fortunately, if people know me long enough, they realize it’s just part of who I am and accept me in spite of it.
Talking to people and asking for advice. I’m beginning work on my senior thesis, which at this point basically involves talking to various professors about the topics I’m trying to narrow down, getting their opinions on them and feeling out possible advisers. To me, this is incredibly stressful. I’m the type of person who is mildly uncomfortable sending an email to someone outside my circle of knowns; actually sitting down face-to-face with someone literally makes me sweat.
I can’t do mental math: I’m just missing whatever makes it intuitive to some people. In a class this morning I actually asked why, in the final equation for something, the constant changed from 16 to 32. “Because it’s for the effect of both coils” was the answer, which took a minute to make sense to me.
Also, getting up in the morning. My father can pop right out of bed at 6 or 7 AM and be ready to greet the day, whereas if I’m getting up before 7:30, there’d best be a damn good reason and a whole lot of caffeine to get me there.
I can’t do that, either. As a result, I’d rather talk on the phone than face-to-face, because there at least I’m only missing tone-of-voice type cues. I used to be told “look at me when I’m talking to you” all the time as a kid, because I couldn’t pick up nonverbal cues like facial expressions, so looking at someone didn’t tell me anything their words didn’t, so what’s the point of looking at them? I eventually trained myself to do it, but it still isn’t natural for me, and I don’t pick up any cues from doing it. I won’t notice if someone is or isn’t making eye contact with me, for example.
I also have a terrible time with any kind of spatial problem- “will this pot be big enough for this amount of stuff” or “will this fit into this box” without actually checking.
I only learned in the last few years (I’m 33) that some people can hear a note sung or played and know what note it is. I can’t do that. I also have no idea how anyone ever knows what key someone is singing in- I can’t tell.
Reading handwriting- any handwriting, good or bad. I read typed text faster than most people (Mr. Neville says much faster than most people), but I have a very hard time reading anything handwritten unless it is printed.
I’m reluctant to walk down stairs if I can’t look at my feet- I’m afraid I’ll put one in the wrong place and fall if I don’t.
I can do business-type phone calls just fine, when there’s a point to the call. But when people call just to talk? I’m hopeless. They just want to . . . chat! About stuff! Their personal lives and ask me about mine! No, I’m no good at that.
